General entrance requirements
To apply for Painting: Crafting Meaning with Colour, please register in Osiris (see link below). Participation in the entrance exam of Painting: Crafting Meaning with Colour consists of writing a motivation letter of max. 300 words, and preparing an artistic portfolio. Please upload the required documents before 12 June 23:59 in Osiris. If these are of sufficient quality, you will be invited for the second round, in which you will be interviewed online by the tutor about your motivation.
After your application is reviewed, you will be informed whether you are invited to the interview in the last week of June.
The admission interview date for Painting: Crafting Meaning with Colour is on Thursday afternoon 26 June 2025.
You can apply as of 15 April 2025 for this course through Osiris. You may find the link at the bottom of this page.
Specific entrance requirements Painting: Crafting Meaning with Colour:
Some painting experience is requested, and an open and experimental attitude is essential.
Please prepare a portfolio in PDF, consisting of min. 12 and max. 20 works. Below each image its material and size, and, only if present, a title. No additional info or design!
Included should be at least 6 paintings made with gouache, acrylic, tempera or oil paint, amongst which there are minimal:
1 portrait
1 landscape
1 still life
3 paintings in which imagination and / or abstraction play a role.
The other pieces are free from technique and subject.
You can upload your portfolio (PDF, max. 20 mb) and motivation letter in Osiris.
Description
A painting course at academic level. How do you make a painting that expresses what you have in mind? What do you want to paint and in which form and style? In about 28 practical lessons you develop a number of skills that you can use for this. Attention is paid to light and dark, the different colours and their effect, sense of form, brushstroke, composition and different ways of expressing depth. You will paint from perception (including model and still life), but also abstract and from memory. Along the course, a growing attention is paid also to the development of your own subject matter and style. How do you come up with ideas and how do you shape them? You are encouraged to be inspired by - for example -; your own environment, other media, the subject of your main study, memory, a feeling, social involvement, imagination, a philosophical question or the pure act of painting.
An important element of the course is learning to perceive and analyze each other's paintings and those of professional artists. Each lesson has a PowerPoint presentation with images of relevant paintings from art history, and a joint evaluation. At least once we visit a museum together. At the end of the course you’ll show a selection of your works in an exhibition, together with students from the other PA courses.
Course objectives
Intensification of perception; Intensification of knowledge of painting through art history until now; application of fundamental principles of painting techniques; viewing and describing paintings; Making a start with personal image- and idea development.
Schedule
Online admission interview: Thursday 26 June 2025 afternoon 14:00-18:00 (date and times are not negotiable, so please reserve this date already in your calendar)
Lessons: Thursday from 18.30 – 21.30 hrs at KABK Prinsessegracht building first floor.
Period: This course takes place during the full academic year; 14 lessons in Semester 1, and 14 lessons in Semester 2. Start date: first week of September.
Location: KABK, Prinsessegracht 4, Den Haag
Room: PB125
Mode of instruction
The course consists of three modules focused on technique, perception and subject matter. Each module consists of a number of lessons in which a specific working method or subject is the center point.
Most of the classes contain: practical painting assignments aimed at learning how to deal with various skills, techniques and content. Individual guidance during painting and individual assessment of homework made in an inspiration book; a PowerPoint presentation with relevant images from art history; a group conversation and a joint evaluation of the work.
Other classes consist of a museum visit, lectures by students, evaluations and the organization of an exhibition.
Mode of assessment
Attendance at classes of at least 80%.
Presentation of your work
Individual assessment of work at the end of the course
Completed individual project
A presentation for the group about a contemporary painter
At least 20 paintings and a full inspiration book
Satisfactory development
Participation in the final exhibition
Material
You provide your own painting material, what’s needed is communicated by the tutor a week before the start of the course.
Other means like audio visual presentations, printed lists and examples, still life props and models are provided by the tutor and the KABK.
Literature
All applicable materials for painting and drawing, as well as tools, books, other printed information and audiovisual means.
Information
Registration
For the academic year 2025-2026, please register before 12 June 2025 at 23:59.
NB: This course is NOT available in Usis.
Registration: you can register for the course via this link.
Remarks
This course is part of Practicum Artium. These courses are exclusively intented for students of Leiden University.
For other courses in the domains of fine arts and music, please visit: Elective courses music and fine arts